Enabling Environments: Equipment - Talking tubes, scarecrows, painters, capes, cards, mats
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Talking, painting and dressing up are the essential early years activities enhanced with these new products previewed by Ruth Thomson.
TALKING TUBES (from £14.99)
www.reflectionsonlearning.co.uk
Get children chatting outdoors with Talking Tubes, from Reflections on Learning. Handsets are connected by hollow tubes, made from strong plastic. The phones come with connectors to either extend the length of the tube (the 'in-line connector') or to divide the tube two ways (the 'Yconnector').
The basic set (£14.99) comprises two handsets and 3m of tubing; additional tubes and connectors are available for £14.99. The Telephone Exchange set (£49.99), designed for schools, has eight handsets, over 20m of tubing and six 'Y' and six 'in-line' connectors, enabling up to eight children to communicate within the same network or be divided into pairs.
ANIMAL CAPES (£11.95 each) 
These animal capes, from Pretend to Be, offer an easy solution to dressing up and plenty of opportunity for creative play. The jungle set features an elephant, crocodile, tiger and monkey, while in the farmyard set there is a fox, chicken, pig and cow. The capes comply with EN71 toy safety standards, come in one size and are suitable for children aged three to six.
SCARECROW SAM (£34.95)
Use recycled materials and natural foliage or plunder the dressing-up box to create your own scarecrow around a metal frame from TTS, measuring 135 x 65cm. Weave the frame with ribbon, fabric or beads or hang CDs from the arms.
WHEELIE PAINTERS (£54.95) 
Children will have enormous fun trundling through paint or puddles with this set of four wheelie painters, each with a different pattern.
TALK ABOUT ... THINGS AT HOME, THINGS WE DO AND HOW WE FEEL (£25.00 per set) 
Yellow Door's 'Talk About ...' series is designed to deliver targeted support to help children acquire the key building blocks of language. Each set includes clear photographic cards, activity cards and a free CD-ROM offering flexible ways to use the images.
'Things At Home' includes a set of 40 cards, covering things we eat, things we wear, toys and household objects. 'Things We Do' aims to build children's knowledge of verbs and pronouns, so letting them move from labelling things to talking in complete sentences. The 32 photo cards on 'How We Feel' features eight feelings: happy, cross, surprised, sad, confused, frightened, bored and disgusted.
PLACEMATS (£2.50 each) 
Fabric placemats are the latest low-cost fundraising idea from All My Own Work. The children simply draw a picture on A3 or A4 landscape paper and All My Own Work will print them on heavyweight fabric placements that make mealtimes more fun.
PRODUCTS FOR REVIEW?
If you have a new product that you would like reviewed, e-mail details to: ruth.thomson@haymarket.com
